Turkey responds to Syrian shelling

Turkish forces fired across the frontier into Syria yesterday after a shell launched from Syria landed in Turkey’s border town of Akçakale, underlining Ankara’s warning that it will respond with force to any violence spilling over into its territory.

It was the fifth consecutive day of Turkish retaliation against incoming bombardment from northern Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have been battling rebels who control swathes of land close to the Turkish frontier. The exchanges are the most serious cross-border violence in Syria’s revolt against President Assad.

The latest Syrian shell landed near a plant belonging to the Turkish Grain Board several hundred metres from the centre of Akçakale where five civilians were killed on Wednesday in previous Syrian artillery fire. – (Reuters)